Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. No money is made from this.

Chapter 8 - A summer evening at the sea side

Pacing up and down Hermione's office Harry glanced at his watch, for what felt like the thousand's time in ten minutes. He knew he should calm down. Most likely Teddy was just fine, having fun around London. A thought that pushed Harry's worry over with anger. His godson was strolling around London against his ban and had half the family in turmoil. If he had his hands on him now – if yes if. The worry was back with a pang and he begged for Hermione to hurry up.

"I have something." Her words forced Harry out of his trance and he stopped the pacing, raising an eyebrow as to motion her to continue.

"Well two things actually. He..." she pointed on the note from Ginny at the name Alexander Clearwater. "has used Alohamora at a house in Brighton two hours ago. And then we have Miss Laura Greengrass who used an electricity spell thirty minutes ago at a place that seems to be Brighton beach."

"Brighton? What are they doing at the seaside? And Alohamora, they didn't break in somewhere, did they? Anything about Ted?"

"No nothing about Teddy. I can't trace flying and he hasn't used magic. As for Brighton, I don't know either Harry, but I can create a portkey to get us to the traced location."

Only minutes later Harry felt the sensation of being pulled from the office and landing rather hardly in a foreign environment. It was a small deserted alley and Hermione quickly let him towards the crowded beach promenade. Of course she wouldn't have portkeyed them into the middle of a bunch of muggles. Good thing she kept a cool head since his worry clearly overruled all common sense.

Taking in the fresh sea air, they started scanning the beach for four teenage wizards and it didn't take long for Harry to find his godson's turquoise hair. Definitely not a smart move to stay undercover, but then again his godson surely didn't believe his adoptive father would be out for a walk at the sea side.

The instant he spotted the colourful mob amongst two young wizards and a dark-haired girl, a weight fell from him and he let out a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding.

Unfortunately for Teddy with concern gone, fury was the emotion that filled the auror.

"Please stay calm. There is no need to make a scene in public." His friend said as they quietly approached the teenage group who faced them with their backs. They had music playing, electricity spell that's what Hermione had said. There was some take-away and then he spotted about a dozen colourful bottles. He had seen them before, it were muggle drinks.

They were drinking alcohol? For Merlin's sake, they are only 15!

Harry forced himself to remain controlled. Hermione was right, losing his temper wouldn't be wise.

"Good evening" four heads turned around to identify the deep male voice.

"Harry" Teddy couldn't suppress the surprise. This wasn't good, his godfather would be livid. But before he could say something in his defence, although he doubted there would be much sense in explaining, Harry said:

"Would you care to tell me how you got here?"

Teddy winced, his godfather's tone didn't bode well.

"Flooed from London." He answered eyes cast down to the sandy ground.

"Which floo did you use? Does one of your friends live here?"

The boy next to Teddy had risen to his feet and stepped in to answer the question.

"Mr. Potter, we flooed to my parents holiday home. It's only ten minutes from here and we left our stuff over there."

Harry nodded. The boy was Alex, Teddy's best friend since they were sorted together into Gryffindor. It seemed he had used the opening charm to get out of the house rather than in.

While contemplating the next step he heard Hermione say:"Teddy I think some introductions are in order before we get you children home."

Hating to be referred to as a child, but not daring to push the issue he started: "Laura, Markus this is my godfather Harry Potter and my aunt Hermione Granger. You already know Alex and this is Laura Greengrass and Markus Burowski."

"I would say nice to meet you, but the situation is a bit too awkward for pleasantries. Right we should get going. We'll take you lot to my office, so your parents can collect you. Laura, Alex I need to notify your parents of your underage magic anyway."

All four paled at Hermione's words and Teddy pleaded with his godfather.

"Harry, please do you need to talk to them. Please don't."

"No Teddy, this is serious. It's Hermione's job to report underage magic and you best hope nobody saw you flying to London."

At the disbelieving look on his godson's face he continued.

"Oh yes, I'm well aware that you took the broom. Didn't take a genius to figure it out. Actually as an auror I should report all four of you for underage drinking too. However I'm just going to assume this was the first time and leave it at a warning informing your parents."

He then leaned very close to Teddy's ear and whispered." You however have me to answer too when we get home, and you better have good explainations."

...

Harry's voice was ringing in Teddy's head.

"You however have me to answer too when we get home."

He could feel the knot in his stomach tightening. Part of him wished Harry would just start yelling at him already. At least then he would be able to revoke some of the anger and frustration at his godfather, which had made him leave in the first place. Then again Harry probably didn't want a public scene. As if embarrassing him in front of his friends wasn't bad enough.

His thoughts were interrupted when Harry spoke again.

"Where did you get the alcohol from actually? You shouldn't have been able to get it in the first place. Was it you Teddy, morphing to look older, were you?"

Teddy's eyes went to the ground as he felt tears forming in his eyes. He knew this would probably just fuel Harry's believe that he was guilty, but he didn't care. He couldn't stand someone seeing his tears.

Why was Harry blaming him so easily for everything? Why couldn't he do anything right for his godfather? He didn't trust his voice to speak, but didn't have to as Markus stepped in.

"No Sir. I bought it, in a place in London where they didn't really care. We just wanted to try, Sir."

Harry gave a nod deciding to drop the lecture for the time being and instructed them to bin the remaining bottles before they headed back to Alex house retrieving Teddy's broom and flooing to Hermione's office.

As soon as they had come out the floo Harry sat the four teenagers down in front of Hermione's desk and gave a stern lecture about the restriction of underage magic and the dangers of alcohol. He knew Hermione would most likely make a more lasting impression than him, after all only her looks still kept Ron and him in check from time to time. But it felt wrong to let somebody else take control when it concerned his godson.

Teddy was deeply embarrassed that his godfather reprimanded his friends. Despite the fact that Teddy knew he should pay attention and look chastised, he couldn't bring himself to listen to Harry. The alcohol was making his mind blurry and sleepy. He had known the Alcopops were a stupid idea.

"Get a grip Ted." He thought to himself. If Harry was catching him day dreaming now it wouldn't do him any favours. Still looking engaged was all he could manage and most of Harry's words were lost on him.

Meanwhile Hermione had contacted Alex and Laura's parents, who would be collecting their children soon, but since Mark's parents were muggles and unable to simply floo into the ministry, she would have to apparate him home later and talk to his parents. Too bad she couldn't even claim overtime for this.